Industry Standard Computers
St. Clairsville, Ohio
(740) 695-1520
30 Years In Business - 30 Years Experience with Computers - 25 Years with Networks & Security
The oldest system builder in the area, maybe in the state!
Best Labor Rate in the Area, $25 Shop, $40 Outside
Viruses -- Who What Why?
We are asked all the time about viruses, so here is some advice and some general information.
What:
A virus is a small piece of programing code that exploits a weakness in a program or operating system. I am not an expert in this field but no virus is an accident; they were all designed. Some may have been released into the Internet by mistake but that is one out of 20,000. All viruses are designed primarily to destroy Microsoft! They are primarily designed to hit Windows XP and Windows 2000 or 2003 or 2007 Server. Infection in other programs or operating system is more or less collateral damage.Who:
People who hate Microsoft. People who like to hack the only system that is basically vulnerable. Again people who hate Microsoft and don't want to see Microsoft The Antichrist take over the world.
Why:
To take out Microsoft. A few in the past were to demonstrate that 'Nothing on a computer is safe.' A small quantity are to get credit card or account numbers or other "key" information like "grades" or "what does my boss make a year." Most of these types of self hacking viruses are failures.
How to be safe:
Install Norton Antivirus or McAfee Antivirus. Never use virus versions
over 2 years old. Always keep them on auto update and auto scan.
Windows XP especially Home Edition you need to scan and update daily if not more often. You need to bring the computer in to us, so we can secure it and plug the holes in your personal environment and make backup CDs of your operating system and software for a quicker restore after crashing.Use Netscape or Thunderbird for all your email. Viruses come into Netscape as attachments, they don't open up and eat your computer.
Never, never open attachments unless they are specifically identified by name in the email and you are expecting them! Think of a computer virus like AIDS only friends infect friends most of the time.
Stay away from "chat" programs that allow attachments, MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ to name a few. For ISC customers we have one you can download and use that allows you to talk with any other chat program. Never receive files from these programs. Many of these programs have programing in them that does NOT allow Norton or McAfee to scan the incoming files or the strange code (self activating virus or spyware) that can be sent through them.
Find out what kind of system your Internet provider is using for email servers? Find out what virus programs if any they have on those servers. (Unless you are paying for it, $20-$500 extra per month, there is only minimum scanning of email. The virus program takes too much server power.) We have seen many Windows Small Business Servers allow 10-15 infections per week through to the local work stations. These server are in small volume businesses and have Norton Corporate Edition Antivirus running on the email server!
All pages on this website written by employees of ISC, © Copyright 1999-2015 by Butch Walker, all rights reserved.
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